3 Best Friends Go To Dis With Lots Of Baggage(pre-trip)

[IkeandMike]

Before I can begin this pre-trip report, I'll need to start at how and why this trip came about. Last year, my husband and I took our two children on a trip to the World. We, I mean ME, planned it in less than a month, maybe two and a half weeks was the total planning period. We stayed at the POP, mainly because it was all that was left at that point, but needless to say I LOVED the place. The next time I plan a family trip, POP would be hard to not choose, although I would love to stay at a mod. or dlxe.

As you can tell from the beginnig of this, I am going to have to give you a small post trip report of last years vaca(or as I like to call it "The nightmare before divorce") . So, we will begin with the basics the cast consisted of:

ME: 33(last year) mother of two, full time postal employee, yes that's right I said POSTAL, and lover of all things disney. Last years trip was the fourth time in a lifetime for me and I will never get tired of it. I love to plan, plan, plan a vacation. The pre-trip time for me, is half the fun.

DH: 44(last year) what can I say about dh. Dr. Frued can sum him up best, Anal retentive(i'm not sure I can say that, but that is what he is.) He is an awesome father though and a thoughtful husband(when he wants to be) Doesn't like to follow rules or reason and his main goal in life is to drive me over the edge.

DD: 3 We'll call her Ariel, because that is who she believes she is. Wants a mermaids tail more than Christmas presents under the tree. She is a free spirt and just a joy to be around(when she is in a good mood) She is a mommy's girl and is half mother to her twin brother.

DS: 3 Lets call him Stitch. Little Stitch was born with mild Cerbral Palsy. My little man can overcome anything and he does it with a smile on his face. His CP is mild so he can walk, run , climb and just cause MAJOR havoc. His favorite things in life are to drive his twin crazy, cause his mother to have nervous breakdowns(whenever I find him building elaborate ladders out of various household items...two trips already to the ER for stitches to the back of the head) and to be just like his daddy.

I'll try to sum up this trip in a short paragraph if possible. Let's start with the day before we left. I was all packed for the children and I, suitcased down stairs waiting to go into the car. Brought the "1st born" over to my parents house for them to dog-sit for the trip. Sometimes I feel guilty for leaving the dog behind, but then we get to my parents house and she is so happy to be there. I think the dog had more fun on this vacation than we did.

I then went home and cleaned the house, from top to bottom, took care of the kids, finished and put away every piece of laundry, made dinner, bathed the kids and did all the last minute items. What was dh doing through all of this, you ask? Mowing the lawn. Yes, that's right nine hours it took him to mow less than an acre of lawn. Granted he has to mow our yard and my mother in laws yard, who lives right next to us, but let me say it again, the two yards together are less than an acre. With the mowing, and the weed whacker thing, and the leaf blowing and the edging, this all took nine hours. nine hours. NINE HOURS. People, let me tell you living with this man has made me become a patient person. But as I watch the time go by, and my husbands suitcase sit empty, I so wanted to blow my top. But I didn't want the vacation start out with us fighting, so I went with the flow.

Now let's take a quiz:
It is 9:30 the night before you are to leave for vacation, your suitcase is still unpacked and you have to be up in the morning to leave for the airport at 3:30, you A: take a shower and then pack your suitcase and are in bed by 11 pm.
B: take a shower and ask you wife to help you pack your suitcase in order to save more time and be in bed by 10:30
C: sit on the couch, start watching tv tell your wife you are hungry and want something to eat, would she please make you another dinner or go and get you something to eat, stay up until 1:30 with your suitcase still unpacked and then go to bed.

Ah yes, you are right Dh choose C. So at three o'clock I am up, after staying up with him till 1:30. I shower, load mine and the kids suitcases, the two umbrellas stroller and the two carry on's. One with snacks for the kids and one with a change of clothes just in case our luggage doesn't make it on time. We were taking the ME bus and I didn't want to chance it. I get the kids up at 4:30 we need to leave in an hour, still DH is in bed, yes I tried to wake him, wasn't budging.

You may be asking why I didn't just let the kids sleep and load them in the car last minute. Well, I wanted to be sure that they had something other than poptarts for breakfast, if both of the kids were like my daughter, who is at or slightly above the weight she should be for their age I would have let them sleep. My son however, is, well let me put it to you in numbers, at three, almost four, he weighted 26 pounds. My daughter, same age, older by one minute weighted 35 pounds. I can never rest easy unless I know for sure that I did my best to make sure Stitch puts some food in that belly.

I make breakfast, feed the kids all the while yelling up the stairs for Dh to get up. Finally 4: 50 wakes up. We really need to leave by 5:30 to make our 9:50 flight to Newark. It takes us just about two hours to get there, park, get to terminal, yada yada, you need to get there an hour before your flight yada yada. I am telling a half conscious Dh this as I am pulling him out of bed. Just put your clothes out that you want packed and then go take a shower I tell him. Finally he get's out of bed, 5:05. I pack his suitcase with the clothes he wants to take, take it down the stairs, load it into the truck. I put my two sleepy baby's into the truck with it running to keep them warm,(we have electric start, so I knew they were okay) put a video in for them to watch, go back into the house and find Dh just turning in cicles, trying to figure out how to waste more time. To make a long story a little shorter, we didn't leave for the airport until 6:20, we got there at 9:00 by the time we parked and got to check in the guy said if you run you might make the flight. We got to the terminal just in time to see our flight ramp being moved away from the plane. We had missed the flight.

I'll continue this long story later and get to the pre-trip stuff.

 

[IkeandMike]

So to continue the long story, we missed our first flight, missed our connecting flight, can you guess why and finally got to orlando around 5pm.

Yes, last years trip started out wrong and just continued from there. We as a family managed to have a little fun, but my kids and I were held back by my DH's style of living. Up late, sleep late, by the time we got to the parks, it was soooooooo crowded.

But my children and I were hooked by the magic. We couldn't wait to go back. So upon returning home and finding out that my two best friends were planning a trip to the world(without me) I started to feel a little homesick for the castle. Their original trip was planned for August of 2006, too close for us to join them from our last trip, so at first I didn't dream of going with them. But, I couldn't get myself to stop missing the mouse. I logged onto these boards every morning and lavished in reading people's trip reports. I lived, breathed, and dreamed another trip.

And then my dreams came true...

 

[IkeandMike]

Okay, so let's start this installment with the new cast of characters that will be all going on this trip.

My family whom you met from above minus Dr. Frued's best patient. That's right, we're going commando and well, though I love him, DH is staying home. We'll go to the beach or something with him this year.

BF1: 34 years young. We'll call her Lily. What can I say about Lily. One of the closest friends that I have, we've been best friends, since BF2 introduced us back in 89. One of those people who just gets in your heart and stays in your heart. Ironically, our mothers went to school together and are friends today because of our friendship. She is engaged and plans on getting married on a cruise next spring. She has no children and likes it that way. I fear her patience with my two will wain about half way through the flight. Ha Ha, I hope.

BF1 Fiance: Oh how I would like to refer to him as Hot Guy, or Washboard, but I would like my eyes un-black and blue. So lets call him.........(trying to find G rated title) Jake. That's safe enough. Okay. Just kidding, but out of all three of us, Lily's got the good life. Jake is 28 and is a carpenter by trade. He is the youngest adult going on this trip and is afraid he'll put us fuddy duddies to shame. I hear a challenge coming on.

BF2: 38 years old. Man oh man, two more years and your 40. Lets call her Kat. Ah Kat, is the wild one. She's never been one to walk away from the fun. She's slowed down a little since the birth of her son. Who she had five months after my two were born. So yes we have great expectations for the three of them. She can be a little moody sometimes, so I am already aware to give her some space.

BF2Dh: 33 years old. Red, that's what I'll call him. Don't know much about Red. So I guess I'll find out the "true" him on this trip.

BF2DS: 4. Little Wylie. A cutie by nature. He is inquisitive, smart and cuddly all rolled up in one. He can be a little ramy though, so I do have to watch him with my two, though they can handle their own.

So how did I get myself invited on this trip you ask? Well, I weiseled right in, of course.

The girls had been saying that they wanted to go to Disney right after I got back from my vaca. They said they were going in August, by June no plans had been made. What. How can you be going in August with no plans made yet, I ask them.

Lily: I thought Kat was making the plans.

Kat: Uh, I thought you were making the plans.

Me: I'll do it!!!! I love planning trips.

So I start planning their trip. I call them and email them costs and flight and openings. Kat already knows she can't aford staying on grounds, I'm looking at like(yuk) Motel 6 and stuff like that. Then Kat let's the news out of the bag, the news that got me into this trip. She couldn't go until the following spring. Did you say Spring.
Like next year.
Why yes, yes I did.
Can I come too?

 

[IkeandMike]

Of course I can come, they innocently say. We would love to have you on our trip. Famous last words of the two fools, for they have forgotten that I come with.....dumdadeeda....four year old twins. Yes, or as I like to refer to them the terrorists, the al-quida twins, or just the reason I love Advil.

So, I start planning the all out, we've never been on vacation before together, best friends trip. With two husbands and three children in tow.

To me, it isn't going on vacation if I have to do a cockroach check when I turn out the lights, so Motel 6 was out of the question. No just kidding, I have heard that the 6 isn't that bad, but I like a little lux. when going on vacation. And I love staying on grounds. It's not so much just the ease of the bus system, but that the magic surrounds you everywhere when you stay on grounds. It just nestle's in your heart and makes a home there.

But I knew that Kat just wouldn't go for it, or couldn't go for it I should say, so I started looking around for a place for us. Lily wanted something that offered bus service to all the parks, including Sea World and Universal. Nothing that I pulled up was to my fancy or theirs.

Now, two years ago on E-bay I had found for my husband and I this beautiful rental house in North Carolina on the beach. At a wonderful price. So I started searching. I really didn't think that I would find anything, I thought oh, they will be too far away, or no one's going to post their house on here for Disney, but WOW, was I surprised. Many different places came up, huge houses with five, six bedrooms. That would be good for us and split three ways, fit into Kat's budget, so I posed the question to them. How about instead of staying at a hotel we rent a house.

Well, Lily took one look at me with one child under each arm in a restraining hold, and said, I think I'll need a hotel. I don't really blame her there. If they weren't my children I would be running, screaming, arms waving down the street too. Wait, I do that now....Hmmm

But, once I showed her the house and then the hotel I found that would be the same price for 11 days, she quickly jumped on board. As did Kat. Actually, Lily and I don't ask Kat anything, we just inform her that this is what we are doing. She's really not into the planning of trips. Which is one of the reason's that she doesn't take vacations. Another might be that her husband changes jobs like most people change their cat's litter box, so she is very, very careful with money. She is one of those people who knows what it means to heat your home with one's stove, because the fuel oil has run out.

Both Lily and I come from strong families. Parents who worked hard to give all to their children. We went to the same schools our whole school career and lived in the same houses until we moved out on our own. Kat had a whole different life. She went to like thirteen different schools in her career and lived in six different states. During her highschool years alone. Her mother was a nightmare. Which is why I want her to have the best possible time on this vacation. Growing up it was all about her mother, whether her mother was happy or not, well now it's time for Kat, and I hope she has the time of her life. She truly deserves it. With the way she was raised and all that she went through, her life could have easily taken a different direction, but she persevered and she just amazes me.

So now we have the dates set, May 12th to May 22nd. We rented a beautiful five bedroom house with it's own pool and jacuzzi. It also has a play room with fuse ball and pool table and four bathrooms.

I did cry a tear that I won't be staying on grounds this time, but then I got over it when I figured out that I won't have to have the brown water every morning that Disney calls coffee.

 

[IkeandMike]

After seven months of me asking my dh if he is going to come on this trip or not, his answer was always NO by the way, he's decided that he wants to come and it is now all my fault that he can't come. (wow, what a run on sentence, so glad there isn't a teacher around here with a red pen.)

I planned the trip around the time I thought his vacation was, but I was two weeks ahead of his time period. You see, DH is a correctional officer at one of the local state prisons. They get two weeks off every four months due to the stress of the job. But they are locked in weeks and if you are to swap vacation periods with someone, you must do so three months prior to said period. Little did I know that. Nor did I think it mattered because as of a day ago he still wasn't coming along. Now, there is nothing anyone can do about it and he is upset with me that he won't be coming. Not my fault dude, I asked you for seven months, if you had said you were coming you would have known the exact dates and could have done something about it.

Oh well, I know it will all work itself out in the end. It always does. Maybe I'll just call the lady that handles the vacations at his job and plead insanity and see what she can do to help us out.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Great report so far! Looking forward to seeing how your trip turns out!

 

[ILMICKEY]

Hi! I'm on board! Husbands

Keep it coming, sounds fun.

 

[IkeandMike]

WDW Poly Princess and ILMICKEY Thanks for reading. Glad to hear that you are enjoying this.

 

[IkeandMike]

I have been having so much fun planning this trip that I am a little sad that it's almost here. Half of the fun in taking these trips for me is doing all the research and actually having a purpose for being on these boards.

A great thing about this trip is that I have had nearly eight months to strategically save the money for it. And let me tell you, it's been great fun. For example, I started giving the kids an allowance everyweek of $2, that we will turn into Disney Dollars right before the trip. I know, it's only $2, but to a four year old, it's a million. They are supposed to keep their toy room clean to earn the money every week, so every Friday they go in their and start throwing some stuff around to make it look like they have lived up to their promise. And then come out with their hands out. WE WANT OUR TWO DOLLARS! It reminds me of the paper boy in "Better Off Dead" with John Cusack. I am hoping to teach them the value of a dollar and trying to instill spending carefully. By the time we are ready to go, they should each have about $40 that they have earned and then I am going to give them $20 each for Easter, so they should have plenty to buy what they want. Plus you know Mama's going take care of her cookies.

I also took my christmas tips from this year and saved them, instead of just wasting the money. By doing so I was able to purchase the kids park tickets and still had enough money left over for the house rental. How nice is that. A big THANK YOU to all my generous customers. Besides the cash that I recieved, I also got about two hundred in gift cards from target and Macy's, that will go toward our vacation wardrobe.

 

[IkeandMike]

I am soooo excited. Less than six weeks til we're off to the World. Can't wait. All the planning and scheming is coming to an end though, that makes me a little sad.

Can you believe that I was able to get all the ADR's I wanted with less than six weeks until arrival? I had high anxiety when I called, I kept thinking no way am I going to get Akershus at this point, but I did, I even had my choice of times.

I really believed that once the CM found out that I wasn't staying on grounds that I would be thrown to the way side. "Oh you're one of those" were the words I was waiting to hear. Oh the shame of staying off site. But the guy was really nice and I was treated just like a resort guest. Maybe it won't be so bad staying off grounds after all.

But I'll miss the buses. Just the fact that I get to ride them back and forth to my hotel, not the actual experience of the ride. You know the waiting, the cursing the buses that arn't yours, the anxiety of getting a seat, and the sweaty arm of the persong sitting next to you rubbing against yours. I don't think I'll miss all of that, although I am a sick person, so ya never know.

So hear are my ADR's for the vaca.

May May 14: Akershus for lunch. We've never been there, only learned of it through these boards. Can't wait to try it.
Ariel will be in her glory.

May 15: Liberty Tree Tavern. Havn't been here either. Stitch will love it, that boy loves him some Turkey. So at least I know for one meal I won't have to bride(threaten) the boy to eat. Here's a little aside about the boy: his pediatrician and I just threw a party because he weighed in at 30 pounds his last visit. Whoo Hoo.

May 16: Crystal Palace for breakfast. A before the park opens breakfast. Yeah baby. We love this place , it has quickly become a family tradition.

May 18: Hollywood and Vine for lunch. Another first for us, I thought the kids might like seeing the characters, although, they have outgrown the playhouse Disney shows.

Well that's it for now, I'll post more later on the trials of traveling with the non-planners of the group. Thanks for reading.

 

[IkeandMike]

See, I knew it would all work out. My dh managed to get the two week time period off, so he is now able to go with us. You may think that I wouldn't be over joyed about this based on last years ratings. But, he is mine, for better or for worse, last year was worse, so odds are this year is the better. Right? I mean one can dream, can't I.

No really, I am estatic that he is able to go. For myself, but especially for my son. Lil' Stitch and Frued have the best relationship. I was really worried about them not seeing each other for such a time period. Nor did I want to have a family vacation with only 75% of the family there.

Only 20 more days to go!!! Wow this year sure did fly by.